Little Orphan Anvil: The Complete Trilogy by Joseph Beekman (best contemporary novels .TXT) 📕

foggy light of a full moon was glowingthrough a few of the giant leaves that hung low beforethem; the leaves were tattered and had many holes inthem.

Freezing winds were now howling far abovethem, and they knew that could only mean the gasclouds were closing in upon them. Will and Tinsparkept themselves, Anvil, and the others aboard thewagon cart, shrouded behind the blackened leaves,peering through the holes at what lay beyond.

From where they had stopped, Will gasped inawe at the crevice that cut deep into the ground beforethem; it extended deep into the dry riverbed, which thensnaked far into the narrows of the high canyons. Fogspilled about everywhere, and the black and grey ashnow covered everything.

“Okay,” Will rasped, looking to the others nearby,including Tinspar who continued gazing through one ofthe holes of the drooping leaves. “From here on out wemust stay silent, whispering only to each other whennecessary—we don’t need any other unwanted attentionto ourselves!”

“What of this crevice?” Tinspar whispered. “Thewagon cart will surely be a dead giveaway with itscreaking iron wheels…”

“We won’t be taking it. We leave it here, and theboys with it.” Will moved back to the cart, looking atJonathon and Haley, and then up to Tabitha. Shereturned his look, nodding her head.

“I understand, Will,” she said, her voice quivering slightly. “They must remain here—safe.”

Will smiled. “Yes, my dear, that they must. Wehave a great task now upon us!”

The sorceress who had been absent, scoutingdown inside the bottom of the crevice, now floated intothe soft moonlight of their hidden spot.

“We must hurry, I can feel the witch’s presencewithin the vein of that deep crevice,” she whispered.“She may not know of our own presence; but not totake any chances, I say let us get going!”

“You know what must be done, then?” Will said,looking at Aleeria. “This plan you say that should burythe witch for good—” he paused, taking a deep breath.“If it should fail…well, at least we did our best.”

Aleeria nodded, her eye’s seeming to smile. “Wehave yet to do what must be done, wise sir.”

She glided over to Tabitha’s side, folding herbluish-ghostly arms around her. “The plan that thisyoung lady has inspired in me to take on is one that hasmuch promise.”

Will grinned. “Yes indeed—she is quite a gem!Just like her mother, who so inspired me years backwhen she was but a young child, too!”

Tabitha’s eyes misted over. “Let’s get this onwith, then; I’m late enough as it is getting back to myfolks,” she said with a smirk.

Will laughed out loud and gave her a big hug.“Yes, my dear, you truly have Kelsey and Sonny’s truecharm in you! Now let’s tuck these boys under warmblankets and move out; we shall finish this evil witchand soon be back to your folks!”

“Wait,” Tabitha said, as Will and Tinspar startedfolding the tarp over the boys. “What about some wayto keep them safe? You know, in case any oil slicks orother weird monsters should stroll by the cart while weare gone?”

They looked at each other in thought; and thenTinspar’s eyes brightened.

“Miss Aleeria,” he said lightly. “Would you be sokind as too cast some sort of protective spell around thecart to ward of any crazy creatures?”

The sorceress smiled. “But, of course.”

While Aleeria waved a protective glow over thecart that would hopefully keep the boys safe from harm,Will fixed up Anvil for what would be another riskyshowdown with the witch. He tightened up a few boltsand secured a few panels, and then checked all ofAnvil’s wires and whistles in his iron-plated, roundbody.

Then cinching up their shadowed cloaks, thegroup left the dark forest of giant leaves. They madetheir way deep into the darkened crevice that wouldlead them into the ghostly canyon narrows.

~ CHAPTER XV

~ MAGIC and METAL

After worming their way through much of thedark and unstable crevice that had been ripped open inthe ground many days before, the five haggard andworn travelers had finally stumbled into the foggedfilled narrows of the stone trader ghost canyons.Although they were still down within the crevicepassage, they knew they had entered the narrows whenthey looked up and saw the shadowy, high-canyon walltops looming gigantically above them.

Keeping themselves as secret as possible whilethey made their way through the crevice passage, Willhad made sure to keep Anvil’s eye-lights set at a low,reddish glow, while he and Tinspar had carried two ironlanterns that gave off a soft, rusted light. Wicked rootswould appear at times along the sides of the passage,sticking out from the moist earth like snakes ready tostrike. The roots made it quite difficult for Tinspar andhis towering height; he had to practically crawl throughmost of the crevice.

Aleeria, however, had floated on ahead of themall to see about contacting the stone trader ghostswithin their cave pocket dwellings of the canyon walls.Will was hoping the sorceress could persuade theghosts to assist in defeating the terrible witch, as theyhad once done in the past. Instead of just holding theiroath-spell over the witch (the spell that kept the witchconfined to her burial spot in the narrows) Will hopedthe ghosts would offer a collected spell of sorts in tunewith Aleeria’s own magic. Together, along with Anvil’smetallic magic, they could put the witch into an eternalsleep of her own!

Ash had now covered everything within thepassage, and Will could only imagine how it must haveblanketed most of the realm by now. He had noticed asthey descended into the crevice, the volcanic gas cloudsballooning in size in the night sky; they were growingever darker and closer, and even the light of the frostedmoon was slowly fading.

As they continued on over shards of ancient rockand twisted roots, Will stared at Anvil and thought tohimself of how grateful he was for creating somethingso magical as that of his robot-droid. Yet, at the sametime, he felt a bit of heartache knowing it might be thelast time he ever saw the little robot again.

The fate of the realm now awaits in the magic ofthat metal! he thought quietly. I just hope the idea thatTabitha had thought of, and